[EM] Re: serious strategy problem in Condorcet, but not in IRV?

[Eric Gorr]

At 7:04 PM -0400 8/18/03, Dgamble997 at aol.com wrote:
>Eric Gorr wrote in part:
>
>>Considering that all elections methods can be manipulated in some
>>form or another, what good is it to remind us that society can break
>>down and make the election method irrelevant by subverting the
>>process?
>
>I (quite surprisingly) find myself agreeing with the first half of 
>this sentence. All election methods are vulnerable to manipulation. 
>However we shouldn't just sweep any system's flaws under the carpet 
>and pretend they don't exist. Eric I'm sure wouldn't allow IRV's 
>"flaws" to be swept under the carpet and ignored.

Of course such flaws should not be ignored, but the flaw that James 
was pointing out actually lies utterly outside the scope of an 
election method and inside of the scope of what it means to be a 
moral/ethical participant in an election.

This is fundamentally different from a flaw one can find within 
IRV...where even if one assumes people are perfect and have strictly 
voted their sincere preferences, IRV can select an obviously the 
wrong winner.